(Ottawa) The federal government may not be making the correct choice by replacing Canada’s CF-18 fleet with the F-35, warned the Royal Canadian Air Force’s former CF-18 fleet manager at a press conference in Ottawa.

“As an aerospace engineer and former manager of Canada’s fleet of CF-18s, when I see the term ‘development’ used in the F-35 procurement, I know the government is facing significant performance risks, headaches and much higher costs than anticipated,” said Colonel Paul Maillet (ret.)

Colonel Maillet had a distinguished 33-year career in the military, managing several Major Crown Projects (valued over $100 million). An aerospace engineer, he began working on the CF-18s upon their delivery to Canada in 1984, and progressed to a headquarters appointment as the CF-18 fleet manager in 1996.

Paul Maillet says that the F-35 is a poor choice for Canada’s need to meet sovereignty requirements in the Arctic and on our coasts. He suggests either running an open competition against a fair and unbiased statement of requirement, or extending the life of the CF-18s and skipping a generation of fighter aircraft, while investigating uninhabited aircraft for surveillance.

“Canada should suspend its participation or withdraw from the F-35 consortium until the decision is made on how to proceed,” he said.

“Replacing the CF-18s with a project this size is a strategic investment for the Canadian Forces, and purchasing the F-35s could be as big a mistake as the proposed purchase of nuclear submarines at the end of the Cold War,” said Colonel Maillet.

Colonel Maillet also served as Canada’s first Director of Defence Ethics for DND following the Somalia Inquiry before retiring in 2001. Committed to improving public policy, he is consulted in Canada and internationally as a governance strengthening and corruption prevention expert, and stood as a candidate for the Green Party in two federal elections.

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